TONY OURSLER-PEAK

Kevin told me about this cool Tony Oursler show at Lehmann Maupin Gallery on Chrystie Street so I checked it out today. It's tiny little projections onto unusual metallic shapes. You have to bend in real close to hear what's going on. It's a nice,spooky, Halloweenish thing to do.

MAIL

Here's what I got in the mail today: A card introducing me to soap.com, a card announcing "color reform" at ABC carpet, an offer to join United Airlines Mileage Plus program, a fake love letter from Geico asking me to come back for car insurance (I don't own a car anymore), and a plastic bag from City Scoops filled with more coupons.

MOMOFUKU DINNER-PRIX FIXE

It was great to catch up with my old friend Peter at Momofuku Noodle Bar. The prix fixe dinner is always great, and a great deal. This was perfect food for sliding into fall. It started with squash soup with sage and brown butter.

Rice cakes with shrimp and miso butter.

Hanger steak with black beans and cilantro.

Apple pie cake truffles.

KELVIN NATURAL SLUSH CO.

I'm not generally a fan of all the new trucks serving food everywhere, I like to sit. Kelvin Natural Slush Co. is easy to walk around with so I liked it. This is ginger with guava. I could only drink half though before getting a cold headache.

STRANGE POWERS

I would have liked to have gone to the evening screening to see the Q&A, but it was sold out. I bet it was hilarious. I went to the afternoon showing instead (weird audience: me, an old lady, and a young couple with two kids--not what I expected) This movie was as good as I knew it would be. The Magnetic Fields write some of my favorite songs of all time. It was interesting to see how they all worked together to create their beautiful art. Seeing the movie brought back a ton of memories about New York in a specific time when anything seemed possible.

STRANGE POWERS

One of my favorties: I'm looking forward to seeing this movie.

FARRO

I didn't really know what farro was when I bought it from a stand at the farmer's market the other day. But I looked around on the internet and found a great recipe for this salad:

cooked farro-it's a grain, tomatoes, scallions, basil, arugula, radishes, it asked for cucumbers (I got them but forgot to put them in) and I added dried cranberries, because it seemed appropriate.

I also made chicken (that I had gotten during lunch at Eataly) with lemon and rosemary. I poured the juice over some kale to make it taste good.

I made dinner for Mindy and her terrific kids: Eli and Lucy. It's always nerve racking cooking for kids because they can't hide it if they don't like it. I don't think they liked the farro.

EATALY-FISH

Kat and I had lunch at the fish restaurant in Eataly today. It's run by Doug Pasternak from Esca, here's a link to a New Yorker article about him from a few years ago. Everything was fresh and simple, I could go back here everyday. We started with the crudo tasting (coming towards you: snapper, ivory salmon, hamachi) Then we had crispy, salty wild striped sea bass and scallops.

MOTORINO

Duffy and I rode bikes to Motorino in Brooklyn, another great newish pizza place. This one had eggs, pancetta, mozzarella and basil.

PELLEGRINO MISSONI

Missoni designed this cool bottle for Pellegrino. I like both brands a lot, I've been wanting to purchase some Missoni towels for a long time.

MILLE BORNES

Mille Bornes is a cool game. I like the graphics.

DINNER FOR ONE

I don't think it's pathetic to make an elaborate dinner for yourself. This is one of my favorite combos: roasted squash, carmelized onions, rosemary, goat cheese.

APPLE SAUCE

My apartment was starting to smell like apples, so I made some apple sauce. It's really easy: peel and then chop up some apples (I had five). Put them in a pot, I added molasses--it seemed to take forever to come out of the jar, but I waited--and a pinch of salt.

Cook it on low for 30-40min

The apples fall apart and get soft.

SEERSUCKER

Kim and I rode our bikes and met at Seersucker in Carroll Gardens. We solved the eternal brunch problem (savory vs. sweet)* by ordering the buttermilk pancakes and the fried green tomatoes with country ham, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. This was real country ham: chewy, salty and thick.
We also got biscuits that came with butter and jam in tiny jars. One thing about Brooklyn (at least this area): It's filled with stupid stores. There is one place that is a "yarn cafe", there are several shops that sell fake vintage manly clothes (I'm their target audience) tons of restaurants all trying harder than each other to be local, organic, etc. There was a store called b.tween, selling appropriately non-sexy clothes for tweenagers. A lot of the places use Brooklyn in the name: Brooklyn Bead, Brookvin (a wine place), Video Free Brooklyn, Breuklyn.

* I have a friend that orders "pancakes for the table" even if it's just two of you eating, to make sure the sweet is covered.

FISH FACE

You know that feeling you get in your stomach when you're around someone new and exciting that you like? I had that the other night at Txikito. It was difficult to concentrate on the Hake neck (cogote de merluza) we ordered.

SUNSPEL

WARNING: Don't read this if you don't want to know about my underwear. I wear boxers. Everyone likes really old underwear, the kind that are very soft and have some holes in them, but mine have gone too far so I had to get some replacements. I've recently come across a brand that I love, Sunspel. They are pretty expensive, but they fit great (no binding or bunching) and they look pretty good if I do say so myself.

McRIB

When I was in high school I worked at McDonald's. If you worked a four hour shift, for your break meal you could have a drink, small fries and a small sandwich (hamburger, cheeseburger, filet-o-fish) If you worked more than four hours, you could have a large sandwich (BigMac, Quarter Pounder and at the time McRib) If I worked four hours I almost always opted for the McRib. I read today that they will be re-releasing the McRib nationwide on November 2 for six weeks only. It's been out of circulation since 1994. The McDonald's I worked at in North Carolina also served a rib biscuit for breakfast. It was the same patty as the the McRib, cut in half and slathered with cream gravy.

STUART'S FARM

Yesterday was a perfect fall day. Stuart's Farm is about an hour outside of the city, it's where everyone takes their kids to pick apples, go on hayrides (pulled by loud tractors-this didn't seem fun) and get giant pumpkins for Halloween. You can fill up a small bag (half peck) of apples for ten dollars. I decided to make a chicken stuffed with apples, onions and squash.I made bread which I'd never really done before. It was a lot easier than I thought. You just have to let it rise and knock it down a few times and put it in a really hot oven. I learned that you should add a pan of water and spritz the inside of the oven before baking.

THE SPOT

I was disappointed when Pichet Ong's Batch Bakery in the West Village closed down. Luckily, he opened a new place that's even better. The Spot is downstairs right on the main stretch of St. Mark's. It's an unusual, calm place that serves desserts. Mindy, Phil and I had the Yuzu Eskimo (with strawberries, passion fruit foam and Oreo soil)

Chocolate ice cream with crumbled macaroons.
Condensed mild ice cream with walnut soil.

STRIP HOUSE

Every couple of months, for the past few years, Ford and I meet at Strip House. We each get the same thing every time. He gets the Ribeye and I get the New York Strip, we split the Bibb lettuce salad--no sides, which always seems to shock the server. We sit at the bar. The clientele here is mostly Wall Street type guys but it's my favorite place to have a steak. It's always cooked perfectly, charred and salty.

PART TWO

For lunch today with Ann, I reworked two things. There were plenty of leftovers from the pork ragu al Maialino so I added a can of tomatoes and cooked it and the juice from before for a few more hours at a really low heat. The meat got really tender and the tomatoes and juice reduced down to become thick and rich. I also tried the America's Test Kitchen Blueberry muffin recipe but substituted apples. I didn't like it as much but Ann said that was like comparing apples and blueberries.
After lunch I took a walk since it's such a nice day. I have to stop hating everything and everybody so much. I walked by two guys identically dressed head to toe in tight black clothes that smelled like patchouli, a model with a Russian fur hat on (even though it's 70 degrees), a guy air kissing a woman saying he saw her on Patrick McMullen, two tall girls talking about how short this other girl was, then I stepped in gum. I also saw Sofia Coppola, she looked pretty.

PORK RAGU AL MAIALINO

As soon as I read this recipe, I knew it was just a matter of time before I tried it. The lemon juice and arugula really help make it.

MATADOR 21 RECAP

A bunch of old friends gathered in Las Vegas this weekend to celebrate Matador Records 21st anniversary. During her show, Chan Marshall of Cat Power said how nice it was to see all the people she used to see at shows in New York. I agree, but now that I'm home, I feel more melancholy. It seems more like the anniversary marks the end of a certain time in my life and now it's time to move on. Lotus of Siam was the place that everyone went to find good, inexpensive Thai food off the main strip.

Raw prawns with chili and fish sauce

Beef short ribs with noodles

Crispy mussel omelet

Soft-shell crab

Beef Tartar

VANDAAG

Work finished early yesterday so we were able to get to Vandaag right when they opened. It's is a Scandinavian restaurant in the East Village. Everything about this place is clean and precise: the design is spacious and bright, the food is simple even though there are lots of unfamiliar flavors. We started with a tasting of akavits in cool looking bottles: (strawberry with peppercorns, pineapple, horseradish, cardamom) They were unusual but the flavors were clear and bright. There was also a delicious pickled oyster that came with a shot glass of it's pickling juice.

Bitterballen are oxtail croquettes

Tomato salad

Clams in parsnip and akavit sauce (this had a licorice flavor) with parsnip fries. I loved letting the fries get soaked in all the juices.